Extras! 13 January 2015

Welcome to The Extras! A daily dose of all the smaller movie related news, clips and just plain cool stuff that you might have missed!

• The 2015 Golden Globes gave us some really good meme-worthy social media fodder, and The Guardian has compiled the best of them from Katherine Zeta Jones being outed as the flamenco dancing girl emoji to model Chrissy Teigen’s now infamous “happy” face when her her husband John Legend won a Globe for Best Song. My personal favourite moment though, which is actually not on the list, has to be Benedict Cumberbatch photo-bombing Meryl Streep as she took a snap with comedian Margaret Cho who was in costume as a North Korean entertainment writer.

• “Help wanted: Writer for Star Wars spinoff movie being directed Gareth Edwards. Enquire within.” Yep, the first Star Wars standalone movie (which is rumoured to either be about a young Han Soloor a galactic heist, depending on which grapevine you listen to) is need of a writer, as Gary Whitta is moving on. There’s nothing to be worried about though, as the Book of Eli scribe has merely finished up his draft of the screenplay and will now hand over the writing reins to whomever takes a crack at it next, so that he can go do some other big movies.

My year of work in a galaxy far, far away is done! I’m onto my next project, adapting @mrmarkmillar’s STARLIGHT for 20th Century Fox!

— Gary Whitta (@garywhitta) January 10, 2015

• You probably wouldn’t be on this site if you didn’t enjoy watching movies, and specifically watching movies in the best way possible, which is why this guide on How To Get More From Your Home Theatre Without Paying a Dime will probably come in handy.

• Poster of the day: Godzilla

• It’s official: The Purge is now a bi-annual franchise. Universal Pictures announced yesterday that The Purge 3 was in development and scheduled for release on 1 July 2016. The Purge 2 really expanded the messed-up world introduced in the first flick, but as entertaining as I’ve found them, I think three films will probably reach the saturation point for me.

Expanding upon the explosive universe introduced in the sleeper hits that have earned $200 million at the worldwide box office, Universal Pictures’ The Purge 3 reveals the next terrifying chapter of 12 hours of anarchy that is sanctioned annually by the New Founders of America.

• And speaking of purging, I need to purge the bad taste left in my mouth by the news that Melissa McCarthy has entered early talks for Paul Feig’s Ghostbusters reboot. I’m just not a fan of McCarthy’s comedy, which seems to equate shouting and swearing with being funny, and feel there are much better options available. There is still hope though as the report makes sure to point that McCarthy’s talks are still in a very tentative stage at this moment, as she has other scheduling commitments which may take precedence.

• If I had this incredibly cool X-Wing rocker as a kid, I would never have grown up.

• David Fincher’s Gone Girl doesn’t exactly have a completely tied up finale, but it’s also not the type of open-ended ending that will have people clamouring for a sequel. But apparently somebody must have, because Gillian Flynn, who adapted her own novel for the script, says she’s up for a follow-up, but only if the old gang gets back together again.

“There could be a sequel at some point if everyone is game to get the gang back together, it could be really fun a few years from now. We could pick it up and see what those crazy Dunnes are up to a few years down the road and if they got on — not well I don’t think. ”

“I would have to have the exact same people to do it — I would want Rosamund, Ben and Fincher to do it.”

• As cool as MacGuyver is in your rose-coloured memories, it’s actually cheesy as all hell, and watching it today just feels kind of awkward and silly. Not as awkward and silly as this musicless version of the opening credits though. (Bonus points if you can actually watch this WITHOUT humming the theme song in your head.)

• When Idris Elba isn’t busy cancelling apocalypses/apartheid, he’s usually found in some movie being a badass. But he may just be a badass with a pen in Poe Must Die, Marc Olden’s supernatural/historical novel that Elba is developing as a movie trilogy, that sees the titular writer Edgar Allen Poe teaming up with a bare knuckle fighter to stop a bunch of demons. Either that is the best piece of Angel fan fiction I’ve seen in ages, or this novel is totally bonkers, but in a good way. Either way, it’s unclear if Elba is actually going to be starring in this, and if so, which role he would be pursuing, but I definitely wouldn’t mind seeing him give a demon a left hook!

Against a backdrop of New York City in the 1840’s, a hellhole of crime and squalor, Edgar Allan Poe plays out a deadly game, fighting not only the demonic forces waged against him, but also his personal demons, the memory of his beloved wife and the alcohol he consumes in order to forget her.

Pierce James Figg, a renowned ex-bare knuckle fighter, has arrived in New York from London carrying with him a letter of introduction from Charles Dickens to Edgar Allan Poe. Figg is pursuing Jonathan the sorcerer and spiritualist. The man who brutally murdered his wife. Jonathan seeks the Throne of Solomon which will grant him immortality and dominion over Lucifer, Asmodeus and all the demons of the upper air. His search has led him to New York.

Frail, gallant Edgar Allan Poe and the grieving, brilliant boxer unite in a perilous mission to find and destroy Jonathan before he can achieve his goal of controlling Lucifer and thereby change the destiny of the world.

• Back in the 1970’s a Japanese Spider-Man TV show was made, probably because it was the 1970’s and drugs were cheap back then. Takuya Yamashiro, as this Spider-Man was known, had all of Peter Parker’s usual powers and characteristics but since this was Japan he also had “the Spider-Machine GP7, a flying, missile-launching race car– and a leopard-headed spaceship, Marveller, that transforms into his giant robot, LEOPARDON!!!”

That quoted bit is from Dan Slott, writer of the “Amazing Spider-Man” comic which is currently going through a massive story arc known as Spider-Verse, where every single spider-related hero that has ever appeared in any media are banding together to fight Morlun and his Inheritors. And this week in “Amazing Spider-Man #12” it’s Takuya and Leopardon that’s being thrown into fight, which has prompted Marvel to release two episodes of the classic show that has been out of circulation of decades already. So sit back (maybe take some hallucinogenics) and enjoy!

If you have anything you would like to contribute to Extras, whether it be interesting stories, funny videos, or artistic photos of yourself in morally questionable poses, feel free to drop a mail to kervyn@themovies.co.za.

Last Updated: January 13, 2015